Thursday, February 4, 2010

We had a little visitor while in Mandurah, and he presented us with a few dilema's, you see he was a little bird, and we have a little cat.
The story goes....
Mama and dada bird expelled little Billy (as he became known to us) from the nest, as they felt it was time he took to the skies, but little Billy had other ideas, and chose to be a ground dweller for a while. No amount of coaxing from mama and dada was going to get Billy to make his maiden flight.
This little scenario was being played out just outside of my kitchen window, and I became very aware of the situation by the somewhat shrill and distressed cries from his parents, as they became aware he could not get back to the safety of the nest, and dark was descending. Eventually they manouvered Billy to they safest place they could find which was a dark corner by the trunk of the tree that held the nest, and they retreated for the night.
Being very aware that my Lily cat would enjoy the delicious morsel that Billy presented, it was time to take over. We rigged a box up to the pergola rafters and placed a makeshift nest inside of it for Billy's comfort, and up he went.
It was a mighty blowy night that night, and I ventured out at around 3am to see the box swinging wildly in the wind, but all was well.
Next morning we placed Billy back where he had been left, and began a rotation system of Billy in the house in his nest, and cat outside for a bathroom break, and vice versa.
We found that Billy's problem was that although well developed, his tail feathers had hardly emerged, thus affecting his balance. Now to cut a long story short, we kept cat from bird for four days, while mama and dada continued to work on Billy's flight abilities.
None of these tiny birds seemed at all unhappy with our human interference, they just had a job to do.
Darling Billy took to the skies and hopefully a happy bird life much to the relief of the by then three carers who had become completely besotted by him.
Now this little story may seem a little removed from Calico and Ivy, but no...

Here you see little Billy in his makeshift nest... yes, I had crocheted it after a lesson from Anthea from assorted shot cottons, and padded it out with fine slivers of Liberty. A fine pad for a sweet bird.

If you have been considering doing the crochet basket course with Anthea, I now feel I have put forward an argument for you all to attend...
you never know when a silly Billy will come knocking